In a Wintery Mood

Well, it seems that there'll be no joking around about winter this year.  In some years passed, the snow falls and melts, falls and melts, and it seems that the decision to actually have a formal season cannot be made.  Not so this year.  The snow has been falling, the mercury is low, and the wind, she blows.  All of this has made us quite festive.

I stopped at the Old Goat on the way home from work mid week, inspired by the afore mentioned meteorological constitution of the area.  Of course I took them for a spin that very eve, despite no pine tar or wax.  In hindsight, this worked out well and removed all the old tar and wax, though I cannot claim to have had a plan.

Sarah has been in an especially festive mood, too.  The snow and the fact that we will be home for x-mas have conspired to spark her imagination and creativity.  It's been fun to watch her decorate and I've benefited greatly from her knack for aesthetic beauty.  

It has been snowing all weekend, so (after waxing the skis) I went out for a trip yesterday morning.  The light was poor, so I doctored this shot.  It gave me intense pleasure to ski out my front door.

Jonas and I took the usual path around the field and then out and down the old train track.  The corn that didn't get harvested looked especially stunning covered in fresh snow.

We had to work a few things out as Jonas has never been skiing before.  He learned two new commands, "Let go of the pole!" and "Get off the ski!"  And I learned how to get up off the ground without taking my skis off.  I guess we're both great teachers.

The beavers on the oxbow down the road from us keep several spots on the river (now beaver pond) unfrozen to get to the shore and back into the water.  This is one of those.  They're always a bit creepy, to me at least, in that they seem intensely dark and deep.  In truth, this area is less than five feet.

My beard looked like this, too, but Jonas lacks the dexterity and interest requisite to operate the camera.  Thus, he gets to be the exemplar. 

Old timey skis with an old timey photo docterin'.

Waitin on the biped.  Down another wintery trail.

When we got home, the smell of leeks and eggs, parsley, coffee, and not the least, bacon, wafted heavily and heavenly from the house.  Sarah had made breakfast.  She also cut a thick slice of whole grain sourdough bread, toasted and buttered it, and spread a cranberry chutney over top.  Needless to say, it was appreciated.

Putting a wine cork to work on  a wooden ski.

After breakfast, Sarah and I went for a hike looking for fixins for the x-mas tree, door decoration, etc.

We carried our basket together like a couple of young romantics.  It filled quickly with pine boughs and dogwood branches and various sundry grasses and berries.

Sarah made an incredible tree topper out of broom corn, and while I am hopelessly biased, I will say anyway that it is incredible.

See what I mean?

Meanwhile, in Virgil, Zhora seems to be enjoying her new house and the season in which it and she now reside.

Happy ladies!  Who says winter brings on the blues?

Ya just gotta know what to do with it!

And this is how much snow we got over a 24hour period.

Mostly fields

There's no real unifying theme here; just some photos I've shot of stuff I love. 

Jonas likes to go for rides with me.  He's a good helper and will go anywhere.  At Brookton's Market he guards my truck, at Agway he makes sure I pick up the right dog treats and the bird food with the peanuts in it, at Pat's he works hard to move the horses around.  No matter where we go, he makes me feel like a good person.  That's the best reason to have dogs, they ignore all your faults.

I worked hard to hang a new axe head that I picked up.  It wasn't too rusty, but the edges were real chipped and dinged up, so I had to file them way back and then create a whole new edge.  I also plained edges onto the handle and rasped it for a better grip.

I'll love to have a real shop someday, but on this crisp late fall day it was pretty magical to work on the axe out by a big hot fire, surrounded by my dogs and listening to all the birds and the wind.

The axe, the sledge, and the rectifier.

Head finished, sanded, edged, and buffed.  Handle plained, roughed, coated in linseed and beeswax.  The bit is from c. 1930.

This is the corn field on the corner.

I went for a run, but had to pause to watch the percherons down the road for a bit.  Can you guess where the hunters are?

Pat and her son Aaron and I went for some rides this past Saturday.  It was opening day of gun season, so, as usual, it sounded like the Tet Offensive was under way, but we dressed in orange and stayed on Pat's property.  By the time we rode, around noon, the major fighting had died down anyway.  Rambo and I had a SUPER day.  He was following me around like a puppy.  I didn't have to hold his reins at all.  Once Pat and Aaron retired, Rambo and I went out to the corn field to look for turkeys and take pictures.

Also, I finished the main part of my brake drum forge.  Just need some cinder blocks to prop it up on.  I think I found an anvil, too, but need to finalize that.

This is a red tail hawk I watched for a while.

The puppies waited impatiently on Sunday for A. Sarah to get home and B. me to light the fire.  Eva is all wrapped up in her blanket, here.

This is where we get our bread from!

Headed this way

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

All that's fit to print

Sarah and I had a lovely day today.  We spent the ENTIRE day either preparing to work in the garden or actually working in the garden... from sun up to sun down.  It was absolutely incredible.

This is a photo from the other day.  Last weekend or the weekend before, we all went for a hike on the FLT in the woods behind Bob and Jenn and Zhora's house.  I'm not sure what's going on here.  Is Zhora about to pounce?  Why am I making that face?

This is a series of pictures I took of the field at the top of my road after a great run last week.

Since the iPhone is my only camera right now, I'm learning to be clever with it.  By pointing it at different lighting, then quickly changing the focal point, one can achieve lots of different lighting effects.

Once in awhile I think about editing the pictures some, but then the choices and complexity just overwhelms me and I undo all my changes and call it good. 

Sarah's workmate and her boyfriend are vegetarians, but apparently that doesn't keep them from fishing for salmon.  I think I have that story right.  Anyway, we traded a jar of pickles for a fillet of salmon that I seared on our grill.  It was marinaded in the cajon sauce that we canned a couple months ago.... delicious.

This is my brand new Eureka Catskill two person A-Frame tent.  You can see an advertisement on page 9 of the May 28, 1980 edition of the Toledo Blade 

Got it set up and seam sealed.  Nope, didn't sleep in it this weekend.  Maybe next?  There are plenty of volunteers to stay in the "pup" tent with me.

We spent Saturday cleaning up the garden, planting garlic, and getting ready for the winter and the spring.  We had lots of help.  Note the dirty nose.

We weeded and raked and weeded and pulled and dug and weeded and turned over soil... and weeded.  We may have not done enough weeding this season.

Good lookin out, buddy.

We kept the fire burning to get rid of weeds and also to warm ourselves on the cold and blustery day.  Indy didn't mind, and the smell of burning pine kept us in the moment, knowing that we were spending our time well.

Sarah preping the garlic.  We planted 4 varieties, I think, including some of our more robust specimens from last year.  Cross your fingers, now and hope for a good crop.

I loved the way Indy was sitting, watching out for... who knows what, honestly.  She sat in this spot for a good long time.

Made a new suet feeder.

Battled the iron dragon.

Today we rode.

This shot would be better if Sarah and Murph were framed against the sky, but I can only do so much shooting from horseback.

I think I'll dink around with some of these photos and post an artsy selection in the next couple days.  See if I can make Sarah and Murph look like dangerous desperadoes.  Hope you're all having as much fun as we are.

a fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi